Effectiveness of gait training for a severe Guillain-Barré syndrome patient requiring a mechanical ventilator: Case report

Nagatomo K, Arai H, Koumura Y. Effectiveness of gait training for a severe Guillain-Barré syndrome patient requiring a mechanical ventilator: Case report. Jpn J Compr Rehabil Sci 2019; 10: 103-107.Introduction: We report the case of a patient with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) who required mechanical ventilation (MV) during hospitalization for Kaifukuki rehabilitation to focus mainly on gait training, ultimately resulting in successful weaning from MV.Case: The patient, a 49-year-old woman, was admitted to an acute hospital with the chief complaint of dyspnea and gait disturbance following diarrhea for 7 days. She was diagnosed with suspected GBS based on respiratory paralysis, quadriplegia, abducens paralysis, and facial paralysis. On the same day, invasive MV was initiated, and she was transferred to another acute hospital. She was diagnosed with an axonal type of GBS and was treated. She was transferred to our hospital for Kaifukuki rehabilitation on day 54. Rehabilitation mainly focusing on gait training using a trunk-hip-bilateral knee-ankle-foot orthosis with inside hip joint for patients with paraplegia allowed our patient to withdraw from MV on day 125.Discussion: It was highly possible that increased ventilation volume resulting from an adequate exercise load allowed the patient to wean from MV. All patients who require MV and whose condition is stable should receive rehabilitation exercise.